The Front Groups Of A.A.

Alcoholics Anonymous claims to be an organization based upon
rigorous honesty and of
attraction, not promotion.
To the Buchmanites of A.A., A.A. is as squeaky clean as it gets, for it never
enters into any controversy. And, to an extent, these True Believers are
correct: The membership of A.A. simply created a series of spinoff front
groups that vigorously promote A.A., the recovery group movement and the
addiction treatment industry. Therefore, in name only, A.A. doesn't enter
the fray while its ideology is spread by its Twelfth-Stepping addicted
evangelists:

"The Web of InfluenceAA is far from being the innocent organization that most people believe
it to be. The familiar gatherings of coffee-slurping, cigarette-smoking
ex­drunks are only the tip of the iceberg. AA and its disease concept
of alcoholism dominate the alcoholism treatment field in this country. Through
its hidden members and its carefully cultivated benign image, AA has tremendous
influence in the media. It has powerful educational and
medical front groups, such as the NCADD
and ASAM, that to a great extent determine the direction
of alcoholism research, treatment, and education.
(...)
AAs front groups and hidden members vilify and blackball critics and
independent researchers. AA and 12-step treatment advocates attempt to smother
alternative treatment approaches. And AAs friends and hidden members
in EAPs, diversion programs, the judiciary, and penal system coerce probably
half-a-million Americans per year into AA attendance and/or 12-step
treatment.This comprises AAs hidden structure and hidden influence. It is,
quite simply, a national disaster."-- Charles Q. Bufe,
"AA's
Impact On Society", pp. 123-124
Alcoholics
Anonymous: Cult Or Cure?

Within the same chapter of his book, Bufe details the hidden structure and
provides a brief historical overview of these front groups:

"Incubation of the Treatment IndustryThe rise of the 12-step treatment industry has been a direct result of
the rise of educational and medical organizations
founded by AA members with three purposes: to promote AA and other 12-step
groups; to promote the disease concept of alcoholism; and to promote the
belief that abstinence is the only legitimate goal of alcoholism and drug
treatment. AAs educational efforts date to 1944, when
AAs first female member, Marty Mann, founded the
National Council on Alcoholism (now the
National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence,
NCADD) with the help of E.M. Jellinek and the Yale Center
of Alcohol
Studies.xi Since then,
the NCADD has acted as AAs spokesman (without,
of course, identifying itself as such) on outside issues and
matters of public controversy. The NCADD
has tirelessly promoted both the disease concept of alcoholism and the belief
that absti­nence is the only legitimate treatment goal; it has also
attempted to suppress studies on controlled drinking, and has virulently
attacked those who publicly disagree with its positions on abstinence and
the disease
concept.xiiThe NCADD also has close ties with the
medical arm of AA. In 1954, Ruth Fox, MD founded what is now
known as the American Society of Addiction Medicine
(ASAM). ASAM, like the
NCADD, has campaigned relentlessly for the disease concept
of alcoholism and for abstinence as the only acceptable treatment goal, publicly
stating that, Abstinence from alcohol is necessary for recovery from
the disease of
alcoholism.xiiiASAM also recommends that physicians and the alcoholism
treatment agencies with which they work . . . develop relationships of maximum
cooperation with the self-help groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous,
because self-help groups, particularly Alcoholics Anonymous, have been
a tremendous help in recovery to many thousands of alcoholics, their friends
and
families.xivASAM further states that expert physicians
should have a knowledge of self-help groups such as AA, NA, Al-Anon,
etc., as well as a knowledge of the spectrum of this disease
and the natural progression if
untreated.xvIn 1973, ASAMs membership voted to become part
of the NCADD, and it remained part of the
NCADD for over a decade. According to the
NCADD, Membership in ASAM,
which had begun certifying physicians specializing in addiction medicine,
had grown so large by 1984 that it no longer made sense to remain under
NCADDs umbrella. However, the two groups continued
to meet together annually until 1991 and today are represented on each
others boards [of
directors].xviThe NCADD maintains close ties with other
medical advocates of abstinence, 12-step programs, and the disease
concept of alcoholism. In the 1970s, NCADD reports that
it offered homes to both the National Nurses Society on Addiction and
the Research Society on Alcoholism which, with ASAM,
began publishing Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental
Research.xviiBut perhaps the NCADDs greatest coup occurred
during the Nixon Administration, with the passage of the Comprehensive Alcohol
Abuse and Alcoholism Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation Act of 1970,
also known as the Hughes Act, sponsored by recovering alcoholic
(that is, AA member) Senator Harold Hughes. The Act won Hughes
NCADDs highest honor, the Gold Key
Award.xviii
It also established the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse
and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and thus opened the tap which
would release rivers of federal cash to the alcoholism movement. Very early
on, the NIAAA logically began contracting with
NCADD for assistance. As a result, in 1976
NCADDs budget peaked at $3.4 million, nearly five
times what it had been before passage of the Hughes Act. Government funding
accounted for more than 75% of the
budget.xix Its
little wonder that UPI called passage of the Hughes Act a signal
victory for groups such as
NCADD.xx
Its equally little wonder that in the wake of the Act the
NCADD opened an office in Washington.The money that the NCADD received from the government
led to huge and rapid growth of both the NCADD and the
rest of the treatment industry. Under the subhead, Federal Government
Boosts Martys Vision, the NCADD boasts
that,This [federal funds] provided seed money for state voluntary
alcoholism associations which in turn helped organize local
NCADD Affiliates [sic]. Marty [Mann] . . . lived long
enough to see how the government had boosted her early vision: the number
of Affiliates [sic] had risen to an all-time high of 223 and their advocacy
efforts had helped to bring to at least 23 the number of states who [sic]
mandated insurance coverage for alcoholism
treatment.xxiThe NCADD continues, The federal government
also facilitated rapid growth in the EAP movement. (EAPs, Employee
Assistance Programs, funnel impaired employees into 12-step
treatment, very often through interventions, threats of job loss,
and other coercive means.) Eleven years of NCADD
campaigning culminated in 1974 with AFL-CIO president George
Meanyxxii and General
Motors director James M. Roche agreeing to chair
NCADDs all-star labor management [sic] committee.
When NIAAA provided NCADD with
funding to establish task forces in ten major cities a year later,
NCADD published the first labor-approved EAP guidelines.
By the end of the 70s [sic], employees had access to 5,000 EAP
programs.xxiiiThus, by the late 1970s AA members in government and the mass media, rivers
of federal cash, and AAs educational and medical
arms had set the stage for the explosive growth of the 12-step alcoholism
treatment industry that would occur in the late 1970s and throughout the
1980s in the United States."xi 11. Prohibition, Alcoholics Anonymous,
the Alcoholism Movement, and the Alcoholic Beverage Industry, by L.
Allen Ragels. Journal of Rational Recovery, Vol. 8 No. 4, March-April 1996,
p.23.
xii 12. See Denialof Reality and of Freedomin Addiction
Research and Treatment, by Stanton Peele. Bulletin of the Society of
Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors, 5(4):149-166, 1986. See also
Alcoholism, Politics, and Bureaucracy: The Consensus Against
Controlled-Drinking Therapy in America, by Stanton Peele. Addictive
Behaviors, 17:49-62, 1992.
xiii 13. See ASAM Public Policy Statement on Abstinence,
adopted by ASAM board of directors in September 1974. The resolution is posted
at http://207.181.5/ppol1.htm#Abstinence. [Now at
http://www.asam.org/ppol/Abstinence.htm
--ed]
xiv 14. Resolution on Self-Help Groups, adopted by ASAM board
of directors on October 19, 1979. The resolution is posted at
http://207.181.5/ppol1.htm#Abstinence. [Now at
http://www.asam.org/ppol/Self%20Help.htm
--ed]
xv 15. How to Identify a Physician Recognized for Expertness in
Diagnosis and Treatment of Alcoholism and Other Drug Dependence, adopted
by ASAM board of directors on February 28, 1986. Posted at
http://207.181.5/ppol2.htm#Abstinence. [Now at
http://www.asam.org/ppol/IDENTIFYING%20A%20PHYSICIAN%202-86%20(2).htm
--ed]
xvi 16. For 50 Years, The Voice of Americans Fighting
Alcoholism.
http://www.ncadd.org/50yrs.html (p. 4).xvii 17. Ibid., p. 6.xviii 18. Ibid., p. 4.xix 19. Ibid., p. 5.xx 20. Ibid.xxi 21. Ibid.xxii 22. Meany was, with the possible
exception of Samuel Gompers, the worst labor leader ever to head the AFL.
He was an enthusiastic supporter of the American Institute for Free Labor
Development, which was a CIA-controlled organization used to subvert labor
movements in Third World countries during the Cold War. He also enthusiastically
supported the war in Vietnam, and once publicly wondered why on earth American
labor unions should want to organize the unorganized. Its little wonder
that he backed the NCADD/EAP plan to coerce American working people into
12-step treatment.xxiii 23. For 50 Years, The
Voice of Americans Fighting Alcoholism.
http://www.ncadd.org/50yrs.html (p. 5).

Ken Ragge provided some more detail concerning A.A.'s front groups in Chapter
13 ("How Far Carried?") of his book, "The Real AA". A brief synopsis of how
A.A. has proliferated by these front groups is found here:

"To keep AA purely spiritual, the membership has what appears to be severe
restrictions on efforts to carry the message. They can't solicit
or accept money from outside sources. They can't ally themselves, as a group,
with other organizations. They must, as AA members, remain anonymous in the
media. As AA members, they can't take a public stand on any political or
social issue. However, there are no restrictions on AA members founding outside
organizations allied with AA or moving existing organizations into alliance
with AA. As members of outside organizations they are able to solicit funds
and take stands on social and political issues. They can also educate
the public. In fact a not AA corporation can do whatever
it sees fit to carry the message except use the AA name and identify
itself with the public as AA. In a legal, corporate sense, AA doctrine has
been spread more by not AA organizations and not AA
people than by AA."-- Ken Ragge,
"How
Far Carried?", pp. 150
The
Real AA

Thus, is it really not A.A. when its collective membership creates clubhouses
and various indoctrination facilities ("treatment"), ALL pushing the Twelve
Steps as a suggested form of
recovery from addiction? Of course it's A.A.!

In an effort to provide Informed Consent here's
a brief list and description of the various front groups of A.A. What's quite
peculiar is that none of these organizations contain any
direct information on what quitting is, much less
how to quit. Likewise, for the sake of public safety,
a quick warning of CAVEAT EMPTOR is necessary
regarding any organization which may have members of these front organizations
operating within them. Keep in mind that A.A. itself,
through its own sales material,
will do anything it can through its membership (including infiltrating those
"open-minded" SCAAAMy organizations) to "carry the message".

NCADD
National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc.

Description:Founded in 1944 by Mrs. Marty Mann, a pioneer in the
alcoholism field, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence,
Inc. (NCADD) provides education, information, help, and hope to the public.
It advocates prevention, intervention, and treatment through a nationwide
network of Affiliates.

Notes: The A.A. and NCADD connection is within Marty Mann's own story
within the Third Edition of the book Alcoholics Anonymous, "Women
Suffer Too". A quote of her's that provides the canonical form of the disease
mythology is at the beginning of the Article, "Disease
or Doctrine?". More connections can be drawn through
the NCADD's
links page. Of further note is that the NCADD was actually cofounded
by Mann and Elvin Morton Jellinek and was so tight with A.A. that even A.A.'s
cofounders' names were upon its own letterhead as advisors (Michael Lemanski,
pp.90, A History Of Addiction And Recovery In The United States).

ASAM
American Society of Addiction Medicine

Description:The American Society of Addiction Medicine is an
association of physicians dedicated to improving the treatment of alcoholism
and other addictions, educating physicians and medical students, promoting
research and prevention, and enlightening and informing the medical community
and the public about these issues. The Society serves its members by providing
opportunities for education and sharing of experiences, and by promoting
the development of a body of professional knowledge and literature to enhance
the quality and increase the availability of appropriate health care for
people affected by the addictions.

NAADAC
National Association of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselors

Description:Founded in 1972 as the National Association of Alcohol
and Drug Abuse Counselors, NAADAC was created to represent the interests
and concerns of substance abuse counselors. Since then, NAADAC has evolved
as a professional membership organization. NAADAC's new name - NAADAC, the
Association for Addiction Professionals - reflects the increasing number
of tobacco, gambling and other addiction professionals who are active in
prevention, intervention, treatment and education.

Notes: This organization is a front group for A.A. "two-hatters":
Unrecovered evangelizing Twelve Steppers who engage in a professional conflict
of interest by making their A.A. service work a career move. These counselors
are engaging in a highly unethical practice by posing as disinterested
"professionals".

NIAAA
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

Description:NIAAA provides leadership in the national effort to
reduce alcohol-related problems by:

Conducting and supporting research in a wide range of scientific areas
including genetics, neuroscience, epidemiology, health risks and benefits
of alcohol consumption, prevention, and treatment

Coordinating and collaborating with other research institutes and Federal
Programs on alcohol-related issues

Collaborating with international, national, state, and local institutions,
organizations, agencies, and programs engaged in alcohol-related work

Translating and disseminating research findings to health care providers,
researchers, policymakers, and the public

Notes: The A.A. front group known as the NIAAA was established as
a result of legislation passed by United States' Congress in 1970 popularly
known as the "Hughes Act". Per NIAAA's history page:

"Congress passed and President Richard M. Nixon signed the Comprehensive
Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Prevention, Treatment, and Rehabilitation Act
of 1970 (Public Law [P.L].) 91-616). Referred to as the "Hughes Act" for
the pivotal role played by Senator Harold E. Hughes in its passage, this
law recognized alcohol abuse and alcoholism as major public health problems
and created the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
to combat them. The road to the passage and signing of this legislation was
not easy. In the end, it required the courage of a number of recovered alcoholics
"going public," the initiative and resourcefulness of a freshman U.S. Senator
(who persevered despite a lack of funding for his Special Subcommittee on
Alcoholism), and the intercession of three individuals in the waning hours
of New Year's Eve in 1970 to convince the President to sign P.L. 91-616 into
law."http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/AboutNIAAA/OrganizationalInformation/History.htm

The Hazelden Foundation

Description:For individuals, families, and communities struggling
with addiction to alcohol and other drugs, Hazelden (a nonprofit organization)
helps people transform their lives by providing the highest quality treatment
and continuing care services, education, research, and publishing products
available today.

Since its 1949 founding in a rural Minnesota lakeside farmhouse, Hazelden
has grown into one of the world's largest, most respected, and best-known
private alcohol and drug rehabilitation centers in the world. Thousands of
people from all 50 states and 42 foreign countries have turned to Hazelden
to find expertise, quality care, and leading authorities on addiction and
recovery issues. Our mission today remains the same as our early founders
had dreamed - to help alcoholics and addicts who need help.

"In 1949, a group of wealthy AA members purchased Hazelden Farm, a parcel
of land located next to the Wilmar State Mental Hospital in Center City,
Minnesota. The farmhouse was turned into a refuge for alcoholics
institutionalized at the State Hospital, and became established as the Hazelden
Foundation. During the early 1950's, psychologists Daniel J. Anderson and
Dr. Nelson J. Bradley, recently educated ay the Yale School of Alcohol Studies,
began working with alcoholics in the Hazelden facility in conjunction with
Wilmar State Hospital. Bradley and Anderson, utilizing
Jellinek's disease concept in conjunction with
the basic principles and
practices of AA, organized and coordinated teams
of physicians, social workers, psychologists, clergymen, and
AA members to treat
alcoholics.* Their program
became a prototype. Soon, other hospitals within Minnesota copied their treatment
techniques and formulated a standardized treatment program for addiction
which became known as the "Minnesota Model" and
which was subsequently adopted on a national
scale."
*Getting Better Within Alcoholics Anonymous, by Nan Robertson.
New York: Wm. Morrow, 1988, pp.217-220.

A.A., A.A. and more fruit-flyin' lock-Steppin' A.A. It all can end and
save lives in the process when the people just quit and walk out.

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